shift lens

[AlanG]

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I thought he was looking for a 90mm tilt shift. And in wants tilt in particular for shooting flowers. The 90mm Schneider pictured below costs about $4000 and is huge, having a 95mm filter ring. It better be good at that size and price. But how hard is it to make a slow 90 mm lens with a modest image circle? A good enlarging lens should be ideal for shooting flowers and people are giving those away.

 

I played with all 3 new Schneiders a couple of times at various shows and I can't understand why they are so big for 50, 90, and 120 lenses. The Canon 45 TS-E is smaller and very good quality (once I take out some c/a on moderate-extreme shifts.) And it has an electronic diaphragm so it is used wide open. I didn't particularly like how the Schneider mechanisms worked but it has been a year since I last handled one. And I can't see using them easily handheld. I am not sure how their tilt mechanisms place the plane of tilt. The Nikons and Canons use goniometer mechanisms to position the plane.

 

I own the Canon 17 TS-E, 24 TS-EII, 45 TS-E, Nikon 28 PC and 35 PC, a Russian 55 PC, and a Russian 80mm tilt shift. I used to have the earlier Canon 24. Since shift lenses are my primary lenses I try to stay on top of what is available. (But I don't need long ones very much.)

 

As I mentioned, there are a lot of more compact and less expensive ways to get a lens in the 80-100 mm range into a tilt shift mount onto an M body considering you have no choice but stop down shooting on that camera anyway. Most MF lenses placed into a tilt shift mount should be pretty good. ANd you can probably find some of these at very cheap prices.

 

Zoerk:

Welcome to Z

 

Schneider 90mm tilt shift:

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Edited September 21, 2012 by AlanG

[AlanG]

Here's the Schneider 50 tilt shift... also with a 95mm thread. And the Canon 45 TS-E which has a 72mm thread. The Canon lens still uses the old design whereas the 17 and new 24 have a more elaborate tilt and dual rotation system. (They are pretty large lenses but are very very good.)

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Edited September 21, 2012 by AlanG

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[brill64]

I have a 5D mark II but if I could solve that shift problem I shall keep only the M9

 

sorry to say & this is my experience only, using the current m9 for shift with a pc lens is more tricky to manage than with a dslr because apart from viewfinder issues, you can't check the focus accurately across all areas of the image unless you are downloading directly to a laptop. even stopped down to f8 or f11, i find the m9 monitor is not quite accurate or big enough for this & file transfer is long-winded. you will be working somewhat slower than now but without a doubt, if you get it right, the image will be better. i have a super-angulon R pc 28, which i used more successfully on a canon 1dsmk2. perhaps think twice if this is something you are making a living out of or wait for the new m before ditching the dslr..?

Edited September 21, 2012 by brill64

[brill64]

has anyone tried using a canon 17 TSE on an m9..?

[Manolo Laguillo]

I have used in the past a Nikon 28mm PC

which I liked very much. It wasn't the sharpest

lens I ever used but when you needed a little

lens correction, it did the trick. So, recently

I had the opportunity to pick up the Schneider

equivalent. It has a changeable lens mount

and Schneider sells both the Nikon and Canon

EOS Mounts. I read somewhere that Leica copied

this Schneiders lens. I don't know if thats true

or not but this Schneider is the finest 28mm

Shift Shift lens I ever used on a 35mm camera.

I've never seen or used the Leica so I can't

say how they compare. The only caveat is when

this lens is used with the Leica M9 you

can't shift it as much as if it were on an

SLR body. The color will shift a bit on

the edges if you go to far. ...

 

the 28 PC Schneider lens you have is the same I show in post #20.

Mine is the Leica R version. Apart from the rubber finishing it's exactly the same design.

I agree with you in respect to the color shift. But it's easy to get rid of it in LR4. I check the box "remove chromatic aberrations" (in LENS CORRECTIONS > Color), and if necessary use the defringe function as well.

Cheers,

Manolo

[Manolo Laguillo]

I would suggest checking Adriano Lolli's webpage

 

Adriano Lolli - Home Page

 

 

This italian constructor makes tilt/shift rigs, and a lot of adaptors. Even an EF to NEX one with external diaphragm (!).

 

Cheers

[Carduelis]

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I once thought about buying a tilt/shift lens, however I have found that the Distortion Filter in Photoshop Elements is adequate for my photography and very good for correcting distortion such as converging verticals in buildings. The trick is having a suitable wide angle lens that will provide sufficient clearance around the object of interest when photographed. This is because applying a Distortion Filter invariably eats into the image from the sides and the clearance allows for this. Once applied, you then suitably crop your modified image into a rectilinear form.

 

I would recommend giving such a Distortion Filter a try before committing to a tilt/shift lens which I guess must take some time with a tripod to set up and be quite difficult to use.

[giordano]

Shift (PC) lenses can perfectly well be used hand-held, though as with any other lens it helps to use a tripod if exact alignment and/or steadiness are important. The camera distortion filter is a great tool, but if you use it for big perspective corrections you end up throwing a lot of pixels away in the cropping: a PC lens lets you use more of what's in the raw file.

 

As for tilt: yes, it takes more skill and more time to set up (though with a modern hand camera a tripod still isn't essential) - and the effects you can create simply cannot be replicated by the camera distortion filter.

[Carduelis]

As an example, the attached image of the church of La Recoleccion in Leon, Nicaragua has been corrected to a large extent with the Distortion Filter to improve converging verticals. I was on a whistle-stop tour of Central America at the time. I accept you lose pixels in the process, however there is sufficient pixel resolution in most sensors to overcome such losses.

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[Manolo Laguillo]

I like both ways, correcting the geometry electronically in PP or with a the PC lens when making the photo, it all depends from the amount of pictures.

 

I am now in the middle of a cityscape project which involves more than 800 final photos, all corrected to a very specific geometry, and it would be impossible to have it finished on time if I had that extra steps in PP.

 

When adjusting geometry in PP there is this important handicap: the crop makes it difficult to adhere to the original 2:3 proportion, and I want it preserved.

 

Besides, being careful when shooting, avoiding sloppiness, is for me worth the effort. In this case I need the control that is only possible when working with the tripod. I belong to the old school, and am used to solve as much as I can from within the camera. In the long run this approach pays off.

 

Even with the new M (which is already ordered) I would still be using the tripod in this particular project.

[Delcredere]

I thought he was looking for a 90mm tilt shift. And in wants tilt in particular for shooting flowers. The 90mm Schneider pictured below costs about $4000 and is huge, having a 95mm filter ring. It better be good at that size and price. But how hard is it to make a slow 90 mm lens with a modest image circle? A good enlarging lens should be ideal for shooting flowers and people are giving those away.

 

I played with all 3 new Schneiders a couple of times at various shows and I can't understand why they are so big for 50, 90, and 120 lenses. The Canon 45 TS-E is smaller and very good quality (once I take out some c/a on moderate-extreme shifts.) And it has an electronic diaphragm so it is used wide open. I didn't particularly like how the Schneider mechanisms worked but it has been a year since I last handled one. And I can't see using them easily handheld. I am not sure how their tilt mechanisms place the plane of tilt. The Nikons and Canons use goniometer mechanisms to position the plane.

 

I own the Canon 17 TS-E, 24 TS-EII, 45 TS-E, Nikon 28 PC and 35 PC, a Russian 55 PC, and a Russian 80mm tilt shift. I used to have the earlier Canon 24. Since shift lenses are my primary lenses I try to stay on top of what is available. (But I don't need long ones very much.)

 

As I mentioned, there are a lot of more compact and less expensive ways to get a lens in the 80-100 mm range into a tilt shift mount onto an M body considering you have no choice but stop down shooting on that camera anyway. Most MF lenses placed into a tilt shift mount should be pretty good. ANd you can probably find some of these at very cheap prices.

 

Zoerk:

Welcome to Z

 

Schneider 90mm tilt shift:

 

Thank you Zoerk. I am most grateful for your advice and that of every one else who has taken the trouble so kindly and informatively to respond to my request in this thread. All

the best, Mike.

[Carduelis]

I like both ways, correcting the geometry electronically in PP or with a the PC lens when making the photo, it all depends from the amount of pictures.

 

I am now in the middle of a cityscape project which involves more than 800 final photos, all corrected to a very specific geometry, and it would be impossible to have it finished on time if I had that extra steps in PP.

 

.

 

I also enjoy the challenge of correcting the geometry electronically in PSE. I take my 'hat off' to the developers of PSE that can allow us to manipulate the geometries to our liking whilst retaining sharpness in the final image.

 

I can appreciate your use of the PC lens when it comes down to the precision of your project work.

[AlanG]

Thank you Zoerk. I am most grateful for your advice and that of every one else who has taken the trouble so kindly and informatively to respond to my request in this thread. All

the best, Mike.

 

You are welcome. But Zoerk is the name of the company thatakes adapters.

[Manolo Laguillo]

Thank you Zoerk. I am most grateful for your advice and that of every one else who has taken the trouble so kindly and informatively to respond to my request in this thread. All

the best, Mike.

 

you are welcome!

[AlanG]

Using software for perspective adjustment can work well. This is probably the easiest and cheapest solution for many photographers. You do have to shoot wider in order to have some crop room after adjusting. (The 17 TS-E is a very wide distortion free well corrected lens already.) And for all but mild corrections I will further adjust the width to height ratio to make the subject look correct after eliminating convergence. As was pointed out these steps are pretty time consuming if you have a lot of images to adjust.

 

And since I don't want to show uncorrected images to my clients that would require me to adjust all of my "proof" images.

 

Don't forget the tilting feature is another matter entirely.

[tedtrimmer]

Using one of the R-adapters to M, I get good results with the 35mm Curtagon lens. Use depth of field or infinity for the distance setting. I use F/8 or F/11 for fully extended tilt shots. This procedure also works on other M Cameras. Great fun and results.